TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - All smiles despite the blazing heat, Muliati's weathered hands move swiftly as she crushes crab claws between her fingers, one after the other, slowly filling up her bucket with meat.
The 50-year-old - and a dozen other women beside her - has been working since 9:00am local time. All are members of the Ujung Parappa group, a crab meat processing collective based in Binanga Sangkara hamlet, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi. Muliati has been a member since 2011.
Muliati said she usually worked until 5:00pm, but on days with lots of orders, she could stay busy until nearly midnight. Despite the long hours, Muliati said she was grateful for the extra source of income. Before, she said, she relied exclusively on the profits earned by her husband Syamsuddin, a fisherman. Now, the couple works together.
Syamsuddin leaves home early in the morning to spread 100 smal rakkang (nets) out on the water. Oce crabs are cought, he brings them home, and Muliati sets about processing them into value-added products, such as crab meat flakes. "Before, my husband barely earned enough. More often than not, we didn't have enough to support our family," she said.
Syamsuddin can harvetst two to five kilograms of crab each day. He said Muliati rarely helped set the nets but that she kept them in working order. "She helps by mending the rakkang to make sure I catch enough crabs," the 50-year-old mand said.
Siah, 52-year-old, once faced similar challenges as Muliati. Before joining the Ujung Parappa group, she spent the day chatting on the stairs of her ramshackle stilt house. "I would sit around with the other women, looking for head lice, waiting for my husband to come back from catching crabs and fish,"she said laughing.
Like Muliati, Siah said she also used to rely on her husband's meager earning and that there was rarely anything left to save. "How could I have savings when I could barely afford my daily necessities? There were days when we couldn't even afford to buy rice," she added.
Muliati, Siah, and the other women in Ujung Parappa Group now earn up to Rp. 1 million apiece each month peeling crab, turning the meat into crabmeat crackers and floss (dried shredded crabs). Muliati said that she could produce 200 to 300 packets of crackers and floss a month. "I already have regular customers," she said. (*)
More Outreach stories can be read in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine
